Homesteading the Noosphere

Eric Steven Raymond

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the Open Publication License,
version 2.0.

$Date: 2002/08/02 09:02:15 $

Revision History

Revision 1.22

24 August 2000

esr

Handicap theory, peacocks, and stags. Parallels with knighthood.

Revision 1.22

24 August 2000

esr

DocBook 4.1 conversion.

Revision 1.21

31 Aug 1999

esr

Major revision for the O'Reilly book. Incorporated some
ideas about the costs of forking and rogue patches from
Michael Chastain. Thomas Gagne (tgagne@ix.netcom.com)
noticed the similarity between "seniority wins" and database
heuristics. Henry Spencer's political analogy. Ryan
Waldron and El Howard (elhoward@hotmail.com)
contributed thoughts on the value of novelty. Thomas Bryan
(tbryan@arlut.utexas.edu) explained the hacker
revulsion to ``embrace and extend''. Darcy Horrocks
inspired the new section ``How Fine A Gift?'' Other new
material on the connection to the Maslovian hierarcy of
values, and the taboo against attacks on competence.

Revision 1.14

21 November 1998

esr

Minor editorial and stale-link fixes.

Revision 1.10

11 July 1998

esr

Remove Fare Rideau's reference to `fame' at his
suggestion.

Revision 1.9

26 May 1998

esr

Incorporated Faré Rideau's noosphere/ergosphere
distinction. Incorporated RMS's assertion that he is not
anticommercial. New section on acculturation and academia
(thanks to Ross J. Reedstrom, Eran Tromer, Allan McInnes,
Mike Whitaker, and others). More about humility, (`egoless
behavior') from Jerry Fass and Marsh Ray.

Revision 1.8

27 April 1998

esr

Added Goldhaber to the bibliography. This is the
version that will go in the Linux Expo proceedings.

Revision 1.7

16 April 1998

esr

New section on `Global implications' discusses
historical tends in the colonization of the noosphere, and
examines the `category-killer' phenomenon. Added another
research question.

Revision 1.3

12 April 1998

esr

Typo fixes and responses to first round of public
comments. First four items in bibliography. An anonymously
contributed observation about reputation incentives
operating even when the craftsman is unaware of them. Added
instructive contrasts with warez d00dz, material on the
`software should speak for itself' premise, and observations
on avoiding personality cults. As a result of all these
changes, the section on `The Problem of Ego' grew and
fissioned.

Revision 1.2

10 April 1998

esr

First published on the Web.

Abstract

After observing a contradiction between the official ideology
defined by open-source licenses and the actual behavior of hackers,
I examine the actual customs that regulate the ownership and control
of open-source software. I show that they imply an underlying
theory of property rights homologous to the Lockean theory of land
tenure. I then relate that to an analysis of the hacker culture
as a `gift culture' in which participants compete for prestige
by giving time, energy, and creativity away. Finally, I examine the
consequences of this analysis for conflict resolution in the culture,
and develop some prescriptive implications.

An Introductory Contradiction

Anyone who watches the busy, tremendously productive world of Internet
open-source software for a while is bound to notice an interesting
contradiction between what open-source hackers say they believe and
the way they actually behave—between the official ideology of the
open-source culture and its actual practice.

Cultures are adaptive machines. The open-source culture is a
response to an identifiable set of drives and pressures. As usual,
the culture's adaptation to its circumstances manifests both as
conscious ideology and as implicit, unconscious or semi-conscious
knowledge. And, as is not uncommon, the unconscious adaptations are
partly at odds with the conscious ideology.

In this essay, I will dig around the roots of that contradiction, and
use it to discover those drives and pressures. I will deduce some
interesting things about the hacker culture and its customs. I will
conclude by suggesting ways in which the culture's implicit knowledge
can be leveraged better.